Portal is cool.

It’s also good practice for astral gymnastics.

Because of your discerning taste in blogs, you’re in a position to get something that very few others are going to have a chance to get.

Michael Cecchetelli, author of Crossed Keys is putting together something pretty cool.

He’s a member of the Gentlemen for Jupiter, and for the last four months he’s been working closely with the the forces of the sphere of Jupiter, and having really good results. He’s written a few blog posts on his experiments, and I don’t know how much he’s made publicly available about his results, but from our conversations I can tell you he’s doing very well integrating the forces of Jupiter. He’s had increases in his income and windfalls of all sorts, with Jupiter making his ties to its manifestation apparent every step of the way.

One of the things that just happened to wander into his life lately was four (yeah, four, that’s how subtle Jupiter’s being with him) silver Jupiter Talismans made using the image from Francis Barrett’s The Magus*. He’s consecrating one for himself, but he’s making the rest available to the public.

And he’s using the rites of the Crossed Keys to consecrate them. He’s using both the Black Dragon and Enchiridion of Pope Leo together to create Crossed Keys Jupiter Talismans.

I’ll wait for a minute and let that sink in a bit.

The author of Crossed Keys, an awesome grimoire that you won’t be able to buy pretty soon, who has spent four months steeped in Jupiter’s forces, is using the grimoire he knows intimately to consecrate four Crossed Keys Jupiter Talismans he got from Jupiter.

He’s only got three available at the moment. He’s selling them for $225. If you’re interested, email him directly at THIS LINK.

I’ll update this post when they’re no longer available. They’re no longer available.

* That’s the “Joseph Smith Jupiter Talisman,” but done right, in case you’re wondering.

Gordon’s been writing about living in an apocalypse. I was skeptical for a while. I mean, yeah, we ARE living in an apocalypse, he’s right about that, but we have been off and on since 1974. There were a couple of good years in there, but most of the time I’ve been alive we’ve been on the brink of some kind of apocalyptic calamity that could hit at any time. Nuclear holocaust, the Reagan recession of 82, Y2k, 9/11, the housing bubble, H1N1, the double dip recession… Our food is either poisoned or too expensive to buy regularly. We’ve had gang warfare and race riots, tornadoes and hurricanes and floods and fires, and one political clusterfuck after another my entire life. 

Ok, so the reason I wrote that article the other day was because I read a blog that I won’t link to because the pinhead doesn’t deserve the traffic. This idiot blogger basically said that anyone who researches anything occult on the internet or in any publicly available work is a delusional idiot if they think they can attain K&CHGA. For support he bashes Crowley, claiming to know more about Crowley and his spiritual state than Crowley did himself.

He claimed to have access to manuscripts that are a few hundred years old. He claimed that they were from the real A:.A:., which is allegedly a Memphis Misraim Rite. He said they only start teaching real mysteries after the 50th degree. He said available manuscripts don’t have the keys to make them useful. And then he bags anyone, whether it’s rootworkers, Hermeticists, or pagans who’s going out on their own to study, experiment, and implement the occult traditions without going through the Masons and getting inducted into the A.: A.:. He closes claiming to know that the Abramelin rite was really based on secret papers that he implies he’s seen.

It was only later, after posting my post and reading some comments by Morgan Drake Eckstein that I realized I’d just taken out the whole Golden Dawn-Thelemic/OTO tradition as well. Which wasn’t my point at all. I don’t mind taking out the Bozo Brigade led by delusional clowns who treat their tradition like a science fiction TV show or a cartoon, those buffoons suck donkey balls and they make a mockery of magic. Magic is serious business.

But there are a lot of GD folks who see the system as a valid and valued compilation of Hermetic, Alchemical, and Kabbalistic principles that can lead to understanding and advancement on the path of the Great Work. They ignore the obviously fake bullshit of the creation myth, and look at the material that was put together logically and cohesively to see how to make it work. They are mechanics, tinkerers who inherited a project car that needs a lot of love, but could run faster than greased lightning when it’s finished if they ever get the time and funds necessary to finish restoring it.

Mr. Eckstein is one of these, as are Sam Webster of the Open Source Order of the GD, and Nick Farrell. Frater AIT and Frater VL belong to a branch of the GD that’s infected by ludicrous leadership, in my opinion, but they are diligent workers who I respect a great deal. A well known author of instruction on traditional grimoire magic is one of the main leaders of another GD Order, and I have nothing but respect for him. The Soror who blogs as PhoenixAngel also has my respect for her efforts to attain spiritual insight and ability through the GD. Jason Miller is either an active or former member of several GD-based or Thelemic Orders with creation myths that run the gammut of believability, and you all know how much I respect his knowledge, understanding, and insight into the way the universe works.

These folks, and the thousands like them, are not the people I’m taking out. They all have a healthy skepticism in their approach to the systems they are working on. They’re looking for useful truth in systems of attainment, and I support and encourage that in everyone’s path.

And I’m not saying there’s nothing to be found in Orders with hokey origins. I’m a Hermeticist, for Christ’s sake (literally!). I get a lot out of the Corpus Hermeticum, and it’s almost certainly 100% total bullshit in its origin myths. I don’t take them literally, I take them as explanatory models. As an explanatory model, the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn make sense. The myths present a metaphorical spiritual truth. Whether Mathers met or did not meet physical people who were or pretended to be the Secret Chiefs doesn’t matter, there’s something that began as an Idea in the Mind of God that manifested as the Golden Dawn, on purpose, to accomplish specific pieces of God’s plan on Earth, regardless of my opinion on the details.

But the main point I’d like to make on all this is that regardless of the origin, or the paperwork, or the living-dead-revived-zombified status of a tradition, anyone can perform the Great Work and succeed, no matter what anyone says about it. God calls us to the Work, in my interpretation and preferred expression of the process of becoming a magician. He reveals what we need to know when we need to know it. He makes a way for us to reach him and to become what we are meant to be. He does so through whatever spiritual tech or belief system is available, and when you get past all the words and symbols, we all learn to do the same kinds of things in our esoteric pursuits, whether it’s in a shamanic tribe, ATR diaspora, Lodge Hermeticism, Debutante Dilettante, or rogue Hermeticist with an internet connection and a few pages of spirit names and little common sense.

People are free to study, experiment, explore, record, and pass on their results to everyone else. There’s no limit to what you can or cannot learn on your own or in a tradition that goes back a few thousand years. If you want to learn how to do magic, there’s nothing that can stop you. Having secret papers may help you in your path if that’s what you’re called to, but secret papers don’t give you the corner on the market, or invalidate anyone else’s path.

Once upon a time, it was popular among certain groups of mystics to claim that they, and they alone, had all the secret papers that taught the One True Way to do Magic. They made up stories about meeting people who displayed fantastic powers, and used the fraudulent tricks of the Spiritualists that were popular at the same time to pretend to receive letters from invisible ascended masters.

When the various orders and traditions of these magicians inevitably imploded, the public at large jeered and happily went on with their lives. Mystics drawn to the promises of Secret Traditional Spiritual Wisdom were disappointed with yet another dead end, and went on their way looking to older materials for glimpses of the eternal light.

But some people, upon seeing the Temples and the Ordos implode, splinter, and implode again without ever producing any signs of ascended masters from their ranks, couldn’t stand to give up their illusions. “The lies they told, I mean, the Myths they told were really TRUE, it was just that they were lying when they said THEY had the secrets!” they told themselves. “Someone somewhere MUST have the REAL secrets!” And so saying, they bounded off into the darkness holding fast to their beliefs in Secret Lodges of Western Magick with unbroken lineages dating back to Atlantis that held the true keys to the secrets of the ages.

A whole new batch of frauds and fakes, seeing a genre to be tapped, a profit of power, control, and manipulation (and money) to be made at someone else’s expense, leaped at the chance to be the purveyors of the “authentic” secret papers and traditions. They built up new towers of falsehood for these eager-to-be-deceived fools to flock to. They produced manuscripts with older sources, for the archaeology they had at their disposal was much better than the archaeology available to their predecessors, and they found that the modern students were as eager to ignore the obvious fabrications just like they had been in the early 20th century. These truly Black Brothers tapped the will to believe the Masonic Myths, played on the eagerness to belong, to have the TRUE SECRET POWERS, and programmed their students to look down upon and mock those who saw through their lies as a defense mechanism, just like spiritual frauds and fakes have always done.

To this very day, there are those who espouse ludicrous, laughable and obviously made up bullshit as the truth because they really want to believe there’s a lodge somewhere that wasn’t just the Post-Victorian Imperialistic British playing dress up in what they thought Egyptian priests wore for a lark.

If you want to play those reindeer games, by all means feel free to do so. But don’t try to tell me your personal fantasies are really the really real truth. There are no secret documents that weren’t developed in the last century, there is no secret Order of initiates from Atlantis, there is no hidden group of ascending masters who will be able to teach you anything you can’t find on the internet for free (www.esotericarchives.com, www.hermetic.com) or figure out on your own if you try hard and ask the right spirits for help.

Fuck the idiots and their stupid fairy tales who try to tell you different. Conjure the spirits and get to Work on your own.

I can’t believe I forgot to link to a purchase point in the review. You should buy your own copy:

Rouge edition ($24.95):
http://www.amazon.com/Crossed-Keys-Softcover-Michael-Cecchetelli/dp/095672034X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312487835&sr=8-1

Hardcover (only 1 new available for $75! damn! Selling out fast!):
http://www.amazon.com/Crossed-Chimeric-Binding-Dragon-Enchiridion/dp/B005E8187C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312487835&sr=8-2

Ok, since Conjureman Ali and Gordon posted their reviews, I figured I’d better get my ass in gear and post mine as well.

Judging the Cover

I think I got a better edition than Gordon did. Mine’s covered in cloth, with the crossed keys imprinted on the cover in gold. You can see where the gold has rubbed off on my copy, but that was my own fault. I was looking at how they had printed the gold on the fabric, and I ran my thumb across it, flaking off the ink or paint. If you get the cool version, don’t rub it!

See the little yellow ribbon poking out the bottom? That’s right, it has a bookmark. Very cool. Mine is set to page 83 at the moment, where as Gordon noted, Michael mentions me.* The book is printed on good thick paper, using a heavy ink. Scarlet Imprint makes quality books, that’s for damned sure. I’ll need to read through it a lot to get it broken in.

Which won’t be a problem, I assure you.

The Review

The introduction puts the reader in the perspective of the author, which I enjoy a great deal. I get more out of a book when I can identify with the author. Set and setting of the work reveal a lot about the nature of the Genius of the work, giving insight into the purpose behind the manifestation of an Idea.

Alright, so as you may know, Crossed Keys is two grimoires, the Black Dragon and the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III. These are the two Keys referenced in the title, and they are crossed because they are on the surface oppositional approaches to magical influence, one demonic, the other holy by Christian theology. They represent two ways of getting the same kinds of things that magicians are usually after, health and health maintenance, sex, and wealth, not necessarily in that order. And divine wisdom in various forms, but mostly to get stuff, to stay safe, and to feel secure in an unsafe world in spite of the many and brutal forms of death and suffering we face daily.

The Black Dragon

The Black Dragon is clearly laid out in this edition. You have everything you need to be able to establish a quick and ready access to the Demonic Kings of Hell.  Mr. Cecchetelli presents the information clearly and concisely. I love the anecdotes he provides, it’s the best thing magician-authors can do for their readers to get a comprehension of the magic they’re talking about. It makes the magic real, and sets the expectations of the readers so they know whether the results they’re getting are typical or if they’re failing. He doesn’t exaggerate the results, and his experiences with the spirits is consistent with my own. I’m left knowing, as a magician who’s worked with demons and angels, that Mr. Cecchetelli’s experiences are real.

And, well, risky. It’s demon magic. There’s a risk. Be careful. This magic is intended for those who are magically mature, experienced, cautious, and wise. Don’t do demon magic when you’re scared, stressed, freaked out, or angry as hell. Don’t do demon magic without giving proper constraints. Don’t conjure up deadly entities without a circle of protection and the prescribed talismans that keep you safe, and you should be fine.

So did you hear me? I WARNED you. Demon magic is dangerous. Ok?

Good.

That said, this grimoire is fucking awesome. The Conjuration of the Book that it starts out with is great. There’s a place for the Mark of the Spirit of the book. I can see it there, waiting for me to record it in the physical realm, waiting for me to conjure the spirit and go exploring the realms with it. Man. Tempting, I tell you, tempting as all hell. I’d like to see Scarlet Imprint publish this with another hundred or so blank lined papers to use in recording the images, names, seals, and characteristics of the other spirits you’ll meet if you use this. The Black Dragon Spiritus Libri edition, bound in black leather embossed with the seals…

Heh.

The Enchiridion of Pope Leo III

As you may expect, I spent a lot more time going over this part of Crossed Keys in more detail than I did with the Black Dragon. Christian Hermetic Magician attending a Catholic Church, what? Yeah. That’s me. This grimoire was made for me.

The Psalm magic is awesome. The Orison magic is awesome. The spirit names are fascinating, and I have their seals, and you can bet I’m going to be conjuring them. There’s a handy quick and easy conjuration rite outlined too. I’ll be including some Trithemian methods in my approach, but I’ll go over it in detail as I go along. I’m really interested in a lot of the applications of the rites.

This grimoire has three sections, Psalm magic up front, the Orisons with a quick reference guide for what to use them for, and then a more detailed section on applications of the Orisons. Comprehensive instructions, and really good insights. It’s just the kind of thing that I need to have on hand to get me thinking of new ways to do things. I’m loving it a lot. It’s the kind of magic you need to know if you’re going to be a magician. You should go through each of the Orisons some time and evaluate the purpose of each one. Ask yourself if you have a method of accomplishing the same goals, and if you don’t, ask why not. I found out a lot in a few short hours that confirmed some of my practices, and encouraged me to pursue additional ones.

Conclusion

Altogether, Crossed Keys is definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time. I highly recommend it to everyone. There’s something for all kinds of conjure magicians to be found. I wish all the grimoires were as easy to understand and came with the kinds of anecdotes he provides.

* Can I tell you how really good it feels to be mentioned like that? I mean, really really good. It’s an honor, as they say, a weird sense of humbleness and pride at the same time. I may brag about it in the future.

Patrick Dunn, author of Postmodern Magic and Magic, Power, Language, Symbol: A Magicians’s Exploration of Linguistics has recently announced that his first book of poetry, titled Second Person is available for pre-order. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Dunn and his work, so I asked if I could get a sample for review.

I was looking forward to reading the poem he sent for a lot of reasons. He’s a savant. I won’t go into details, because he keeps his life private, but the man’s a genius. He’s a neoplatonist, and he knows what that means. He’s a practicing magician, he’s done magic and it’s made his life better. He’s got a postmodern philosophy, which I didn’t understand before I met him and still barely grasp, but I appreciate his take on things. It meshes well with my own.

In his announcement about the availability of Second Person, Mr. Dunn says the work “concerns the mystical connection we have with our
world as a “thou” rather than an “it.” It’s about not only the
relationship between self and other, but between Self and Other.”

In the work I’ve seen so far, this theme is presented subtly, nothing ostentatious or in your face, but implied, rather like the cover of the book. He’s not heavy handed in his observations, but still the meaning comes through. 

The poem he sent was a scene out of many of our lives, the occultist contacted by the friend or acquaintance for a tarot card reading. I heard Mr. Dunn’s voice as he spoke about the scene, as I heard his internal monologue as he related to his querent, and I heard her requests and understood what it was she was looking for. At the same time, I saw the part of Mr. Dunn who was also asking the same question as the querent as it pertained to his own life, expressing that universal need to know how we ended up where we did, what purpose it served, and why we aren’t satisfied. I saw that he was reading himself as well as her in his observation, and in that moment saw that I was also being read.

I don’t know how he did it. There’s nothing in the poem that says, this is what this means and what it is all about. But there’s a sense of knowing and being known that he captures well. He blends the line between observer and observed in many levels, not so much breaking the fourth wall as eliminating its relevance. I’m looking forward to reading the rest when my copy arrives.

To pre-order your copy, you click this link and scroll down to his book.

Update:

Mr. Dunn said I could post the poem he sent too, so here it is:

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Secrets; Lost Knowledge; A Female Querent

Heather, your hair
was too black, your lips
too ready
to say that liquid word,
your body too young.

Books couldn't tell
you what the boys wanted
to hear, wanted to do.  And you
wanted the boys.

Wanted them to see
something rare in you, something
like an orchid unfolding in the steam.

Now you peck out messages to me, asking
if I have a tarot pack to read
where you went wrong, marrying
a good boy, having a fat baby.

How did you end up
here, unhappy still, with a good husband, a nice life?

This card is the Priestess.  It means everything
will be okay.  I promise.  Somehow, okay.

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